A wire harness routed in a vehicle such as an automobile is sheathed by a molded resin protector in an area where a path must be regulated and where the wire harness must be protected. In a protector of this type, when there is a branch wire that branches from a trunk wire of a wire harness and the branch wire must be protected by the protector similar to the trunk wire, a protector 100 is provided with a trunk wire insertion portion 111 where a trunk wire 150 of the wire harness is inserted and with a branch wire insertion portion 112 where a branch wire 160 is inserted as illustrated in FIGS. 9 (A) and 9 (B).
In the wire harness sheathed by the protector 100, the branch wire 160 may not be branched from the trunk wire due to differences in vehicle type and grade, and the branch wire 160 may not be wired to the branch wire insertion portion 112 of the protector 100. In such a case, an outlet 112a of the branch wire insertion portion 112 is empty, and so foreign matter such as dust and water can easily enter inside the protector 100 and may have a negative influence on the trunk wire 150 which is inserted into the protector 100. In order to solve this issue, a protector without a branch portion for a branch wire may be provided separately. However, when another type of protector is provided based on the presence of the branch wire, the number of components increases, thus increasing costs.
Conventionally, in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. H08-251754, the applicant provides a protector 200 as illustrated in FIGS. 10 (A) and 10 (B). The protector 200 is configured to be able to correspond to a design change of the wire harness, and is configured with both side walls 211 and 212 of a main body 210 divided into a plurality of side walls 211A and 212A. Each of these divided side walls 211A and 212A stands independently so as to be foldable outward from a bottom wall 215 and the side walls 211A and 212A which correspond to a location where the branch wire 160 branches from the trunk wire 150 of the wire harness are selected and folded outward and the branch wire 160 is extracted from the protector 200.